The Network of African Science Academies welcomed in France

with Robin Crewe, président of NASAC and Moctar Touré, Vice-Chairman of the National Academy of Sciences and Technologies of Senegal

Robin Crewe and Moctar Touré participated to a training seminar at the French academy of science. With 38 other persons they represented 17 African Academies which were here to define enhancing communication strategies for sciences academies in Africa. In this program, they share their first conclusions and explain to us what is the NASAC, The Network of African Science Academies.

The seminar took place on the 26th and 27th January 2012 at the French Academy of Sciences.
The Academy hosted 17 African countries which belong to the NASAC. The goals of the seminar were :
- To provide participants with practical skills and technical knowledge that will be useful in designing, planning, managing, and disseminating their own communication plans for the academy’s activities.
- To foster an exchange of ideas on how Science Academies in Africa might be used to better support the public and policymaking.
- To provide the different African Science Academies a chance to build a network and develop stronger professional relationships with their French, Dutch and Swiss counterparts.
- To enable officials and staff from various African academies to observe the inner workings of the French Academy.

In this program, Moctar Touré shares with us the topic wich interested him the most regardind his country Senegal : the importance of science education and public information.

Robin Crewe, president of the NASAC (The Network of African Science Academies) gives us the specifity of this network which could be a good example in Europe.

The NASAC was established on 13th December 2001 in Nairobi, Kenya, under the auspices of the African Academy of Sciences (AAS) and the Inter Academy Panel (lAP). At that inception meeting the NASAC Statutes were drafted and signed by 17 founding member-Academies: